‘Tackling poverty and social exclusion through culture, heritage and the arts’

National Assembly for WalesCulture, Welsh Language and Communications CommitteeNovember 2019

Allan Herbert from South Riverside Community Development Centre described the scheme as “terrific”, saying:

“It really does take theatre to places it’s not normally seen… the last one we put on… at least 70 per cent of them had never been in a theatre, let alone being regular theatre-goers.”47

Section 62 Report below

Several witnesses questioned the suitability of the outcomes used to evaluate Fusion. For example, Allan Herbert of the South Riverside Community Development Centre said that the current outcomes used to evaluate Fusion were limiting, and too focused on employment, he said:

“I think Welsh Government’s done a disservice to the Baroness Kay Andrews report… the breadth of that report was not just about employment… And when that gets translated into an outcomes framework for Fusion… it distorts the entire intent of the recommendations.. They’ve co-opted another programme for an employment programme, and that does a disservice to the research, it does a disservice to people and their ability, because the real way that you get progress is not just through shoe-horning someone into a job; it’s through increasing the engagement process with culture, and that will lead to more meaningful employment. If you don’t do that, you’re missing a real big trick, there.”72